Grant's pre-birthday fun

For Grant's 2nd birthday (tomorrow), we took the boys to Thomas' Day Out in Chattanooga. The boys had no idea where we were going until 2 minutes before we arrived. A note to novice parents: Never tell your kids you're going to do something/go somewhere until you're actually, physically onsite. Trust me on this one -- I've been burned too many times. They were excited and we were thankful that the impending 70% chance of rain held off. Turns out though, threat of rain wasn't our biggest problem. Two minutes after this picture was taken:

Grant fell, face down on the asphalt, looking like this:

Once Grant stopped crying, we meandered through the festivities, including a giant tent filled with train tables as far as the eye can see.

Shortly after this photo was taken, Evan stumbled out of the tent, turned pale as a ghost and nearly collapsed into my arms. We think he got dehydrated (he has a little cold) and overheated. We quickly remedied the situation with a sugary neon blue juice drink from the concessions. Nothing that a little high fructose corn syrup and blue #6 won't cure.

Next stop: Petting zoo! Which was really fun, since the petting zoo at Thomas' Day Out features attack donkeys! Some well-meaning donkey bit the hand that fed him and unfortunately that hand (thumb) belonged to our little Grant. Grant's interpretation of the event: "Horsey eat!"

Thomas' Day Out is FUN! No really, after those few fiascos, we took a real train ride, ate lunch, stopped at the gift shop and all was right in the world. The following pictures feature the more enjoyable moments of our day trip. Fair warning: there are lots of pictures included in this post, so go ahead and take a moment to grab a cold beer, pull up a chair and enjoy.

And this is what you get after a face plant, a near fainting, a donkey bite and an otherwise fun day with Thomas. It's what I call "Success."